


Sock Puppets

by Paraprosdokia (ChangeableConsistency)



Series: White Socks [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Leverage, Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Banter, Crimson Tide - Freeform, Gen, Hacking as magic, PVP, Past Skye/Chaos, ongoing series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23999395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangeableConsistency/pseuds/Paraprosdokia
Summary: Skye faces someone from her past.
Series: White Socks [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1730680
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Sock Puppets

**Author's Note:**

> This basically popped into my head whole cloth. I hope you have as much fun as I did.

“Skye.”

“Give me a minute, Coulson. It’s not easy what I’m doing right now, not with this low of a bandwidth.”

“I’ve got Fitzsimmons channeling all the mana from the wellpoint we found; they’re giving you as much power as they can.”

“I’m not sure it’s going to be enough. Their Shield spell is too strong. They’ve got a Seer of their own. And they're good.”

“What do you need to break through?”

“Yarrow root. And a robin’s egg. But I think I have a better idea.”

“Hit me.”

“I drop my own mental shields and let them in, right now we’re like two lodestones repelling each other, the second I drop my shield our minds will snap together like flipping one of the stones; from there it would be direct one on one mental combat. I win, their Shield spell drops.”

“Why would they engage, why not just go back to buffing their Shield?”

“Because they’re a Seer,” Skye says, rolling her eyes, “It’s what we do. I’ve never known another Seer to back down from a challenge; they would be a laughing stock if they did, unless they’re a newbie, and this line jockey is no newb.”

“And if you lose?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m serious, Skye.”

“The bond will be strong enough that the damage we do to each other will carry over to our corporeal forms to a limited degree. There’s three main types of combat, to first blood, to knock out, or to death. Most of us fight by Jolie Rules, which allows for tapping out. There’s a sort of honor among Seers.”

“And if they don’t fight by Jolie rules?”

”Then we don’t quit until the victory condition is met.”

“You challenge them to first blood only. If they won’t agree then we find another way.”

“No. It should be to knock out.”

“Why, you said there’s honor among hackers?”

“Just because he drops the Sheild, that doesn’t mean he won’t keep trying to stop us in other ways. If I knock him out, then he’s off the board.”

“He?”

“Yeah, he let something slip in his last counter spell, if that’s not Chaos I’ll eat my wand.”

“Chaos?”

“Scum. See’s for the highest bidder. Doesn’t care who gets hurt. All he cares about is money and winning.”

“Could we just buy him off?” May speaks up for the first time.

“We could have…” Skye trails off.

“But?” Phil asks.

“But I’m pretty sure he’s picked up on who I am as well now.”

“How?”

“Seer’s spellwork is personalized, we all have our own signatures. The base of each spell may be the same but when a Seer channel’s mana we convert it into spell silk which our souls ‘dye’. Also, Seer’s find patterns we like, short cuts or embellishments and all our Spellweavings will carry traces of our work. At first Chaos’s Shield was grimoire smooth, like a marble; now it’s like looking into the pits of the Nine Hells with Duergar death chants playing. It’s definitely him. He’s issuing a challenge, right now it’s just a matter of who flips first,” she laughs as the adrenaline surges through her.

This.

This is what she lives for. 

“I don’t like how quickly this escalated. Maybe I should have had Jemma send a skeletal platoon instead.”

“No!” Sky shouts, “I got this! Let me do this.”

Phil hesitates, “Knock out only?”

“Knock out only,” she nods.

”Okay, but you tap out before that happens, understand? I can’t have him taking _you_ off the board.”

“Fine,” she lies, no way is she going to punk out, “Now it’s just a matter of him blinking firs—,” Skye’s eyes turn solid white and she smiles.

“Skye Fall! Never thought I would see the day when you would let Stark hold your leash. Isn’t he basically the antithesis to your social club’s manifesto?”

“The Crimson Tide is not a social club. We’re a revolution. We See the world for how it really is and we’re going to make everyone else See it too.”

The troll laughs, “You think the sheep will do anything but panic? They’ve worn the chains of their oppressors for so long that they would miss the whip before the day was out.”

“You always did have a dismal view of the world, Colin.”

“You did once, too. Before you joined that cult.”

“We are not a cult.”

“Whatever. Are we going to do this?”

“Jolie rules?”

Chaos rubs his thumb up and down his lower right tusk, consideringly, “Miller, to first blood.”

“Jolie to knock out.”

Chaos whistles, “Wow, they must really have you by the scruff of the neck.”

“Too rich for your blood?”

Chaos bristles predictably, “I’ll show you blood, magelet. Jolie to knock out. Don’t worry, I’ll make it last,” he says, throwing a Lightning Bolt at her.

She dodges, leaping then rolling and creating some cover, a long low brick Wall thick with vines. She readies a handful of Missiles, “I’ve heard that before. Let’s just say I’m not impressed with your staying power.”

“Oh, honey, you had no complaints about my staying power before.”

He’s created cover, too, his is a Wall of Blades, which will keep her from using any close up spells. Luckily, if there’s one thing Colin Mason loves more than money or winning, it’s the sound of his own voice and Skye is able to use that to target him. 

She pops up and flings six Missiles in a row before dropping back down, casting defensively like this means only getting one spell off to every two of his, but it also means he’s going to run out of spells sooner than she will.

It also doesn’t hurt that she’s a much harder target herself. 

He curses and she knows she made it through his magic resistance. He must still be wearing that cheap cloak he got in Land’s End. It doesn’t make him nearly as debonair as he thinks it does and he should have upgraded the enchantment on it ages ago. 

“Magic Missile? Really Skye? What are you, like, four?”

“What’s the matter, sting?”

“I’ll show you stinging, _APIARIOUS!”_

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She focuses on her Wall, and a mass of flowers opens all along its length, pulling the Bee Swarm in, neutralizing it. 

“Cute. You always have had a feminine touch.”

Skye feels her blood boil but concentrates on weaving her next spell.

A Fireball explodes just out of range of her down the wall. Good, he’s targeting blind.

“What, no witty rejoiner? You’re not screaming, so I assume that missed. Are you having trouble keeping up, magelet?”

“No, it’s just that your bark is worse than your bite,” she says casting, and it’s not her best pun work, but it will do; Chaos’s skin starts to warp and crackle as the modified Barkskin spell takes hold; instead of giving him added resistance the bark is crumbly and weak and soon coats his whole body before spreading into his tusks.

“Wha—! NOOOO! My tuthkth! You bith. You thattered my tuthkth!”

“What was that, magelet,” Skye laughs, “Could you repeat yourself; I didn’t quite catch it?”

Chaos gives an inarticulate shout of rage and then there’s a roar of another type.

“Oh no,” Skye whispers just before the Tsunami crashes down and over her wall and she’s swept up into it, water choking her lungs as it spins her around, battering her against the ground and she has to fight to remain conscious. 

On the corporeal plane her body jerks and spits up a fountain of water.

“Skye! Skye! May get Simmons!”

“We can’t Phil, both Jemma and Fitz need to keep powering Skye, we can’t risk either of them stopping.”

“We need to do something! Will potions even work?”

“Who knows, it could just choke her further.”

“Dammit. I sent her in there without having enough information.”

“Beat yourself up over it later. For now, you’ve got to make the call: do I give her a potion or not?”

Meanwhile, on the mental plane formed between Skye and Chaos, the wave has ebbed and Skye is laying behind her much reduced wall, coughing up water.

“What the fuck!” She wheezes as loud as she can, “What happened to knock out? You can get components for Regen even in a town as small as Farmville. They’re expensive, but you can get them.”

“Tharminton, not Tharmville. You really don’t care about thethe theep, do you? Why are you working with Thieldbarerth, Thkye?”

“I’m not working _with_ them. I’m _working_ them. They’re an asset. Nothing more. No one has been able to get to as close to King Howard than I have. Phil Coulson and his team are eating out of the palm of my hand.”

“I’d like to believe you, Thkye, but running down rogue Weather Witcheth? Really?” 

The charred and waterlogged vines of her Wall turn on her Tangling around her and she focuses her Will, fighting back as she continues to weave; she gets a few bruises up and down her arms, but otherwise gets free.

Her physical body sprouts the same bruises. 

“Alright, give her an elixir,” Phil says.

“Stark trusts Fury, Fury trusts Coulson; and as soon as I finish kicking your ass, Coulson’s going to trust me.”

She casts and stands up, all seven of her walking through her Wall as it dissipates. 

“What’th keeping me from tapping out and thurrendering to him now and ethpothing you in ethchange for my threedom?”

Four of her Mirror duplicates melt under an Acid Rain Cloud.

“C’mon Chaos, even you have more pride than that. King Howard could offer you Ruby Quartz Castle and you still wouldn’t turn me in.”

And that’s the thing. Even as awful as Chaos is, he wouldn’t. He might threaten it, but he would never actually do it. 

Honor among Seers.

Skye’s literally betting her life on it. 

“For RQC? I might.”

“If I ever thought Stark would part with it, _I_ might be worried.”

A Whirlwind of Blades catches all of one of the remaining dups, destroying it; one stray blade slices up her arm, the cut mirrored on the other duplicate and her physical body.

Then she feels a burst of energy as the cut heals and she can take a deep breath for the first time since the wave. Go Coulson!

“It’s working,” May says.

“You really thould think about coming back to the dark thide. Think of the glory. The thame.”

With a surge of power she gathers in her remaining duplicate and Wild Casts, shaking the very foundation of their shared mental plane, her hands outstretched like claws, “I’m good,” and with one more twist of her wrists she tears the plane apart, knocking Chaos unconscious.

Her eyelids flutter and her eyes return to their normal warm brown; she reaches up a hand to her nose. It comes away with blood, “I… I got him,” she says, dazed, and then she passes out.

“Fitzsimmons,” Phil says over the shared Mental Link, “You can stop channeling. Get over here. I need Simmons to get Skye back on her feet and then we have a Weather Witch to catch.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am open to suggestions on different tropes or storylines people would like to see in this ‘verse. I don’t currently have the next one planned out, but I am sure there will be more of this at some point.
> 
> As always, please let me know if you see any typos. Thank you for reading!


End file.
